Dance to keep moving

IT’S Thursday afternoon and the dance studio is filled with couples, some in wheelchairs, moving in unison to piano music.

The 11 pairs are there for the twice-weekly free class, BBT4PD: Dance for those living with Parkinson’s disease.

“Class can be danced sitting, standing or holding onto a walker,” a flier says.

This is the fifth year, and the programme is growing steadily, said Dennis Lue, instructor and co-programme director with Cindy Surman.

Students are mostly seniors and consider the movement class a lifesaver.

When Parkinson’s disease symptoms catch up with him and he doesn’t feel like going, he goes anyway, said retired rabbi Merle Singer, a programme and ballet theatre benefactor. “Today I was tired. I had an off day,” he said.

Singer was at the class with caregiver Maria Beltran.

“I have to keep moving,” he added, saluting pianist Martha Brown, the programme’s accompanist.

Singer has been coming to the classes for four years and he’s a convert, but only in the dance sense. “I said ‘me, go to ballet, are you kidding?’ ” he said, laughing.

He announced he had Parkinson’s in 2005, Singer said after class. “I may not live to see a cure, but I’ve had a lot of fun,” he said.

“I’m inspired by the people. They laugh and they’re having fun,” said physical therapist Sharlene Mann, who comes twice a week with her husband Charles Mann. “We came to try it out and we stuck.”

“It helps you become aware of your body. Some of my symptoms have gone. I’m doing well,” said Frances Polini, a BBT4PD student for four years.

Marjorie Faver is in her second season. “As a former ballet dancer, it’s helping me move my limbs myself,” she said. “You can feel the music.”

The class is part of a national programme, and instructors Surman and Lue were trained in New York for Dance for PD, a collaborative of Mark Morris Dance Group and Brooklyn Parkinson Group. The programme is sponsored by the American Parkinson Disease Association. – Sun Sentinel/ Tribune News Service